Fantasy Football Player Notes

Cook has been utterly dominant since returning from his groin injury, getting an absurd workload and putting up even more ridiculous production. The Vikings' schedule isn't great to close out the season, particularly during the fantasy playoffs, but don't kid yourself. Cook should be valued as a top-two back going forward.

Smith played a fair amount in his rookie season, but he's still second fiddle to Kyle Rudolph. Although the two tight ends essentially split targets last year, Smith was used fairly closer to the line of scrimmage and almost never had a chance to break big plays. He may see a bit more usage now with plenty of vacated targets in the absence of Stefon Diggs, but he's nothing better than a low-end TE2.

Mattison flopped in a soft matchup against the Falcons, and with a bye on tap in Week 7 and Dalvin Cook's injury looking mild, Mattison may have wasted his one shot at fantasy relevance this year. Continue to roster him as a handcuff despite his disappointing effort against Atlanta, but you obviously can't take a chance on starting him unless Cook misses the game.

Rudolph scored six touchdowns last season, but overall, it was a disappointing effort from the veteran. He essentially split targets with Irv Smith Jr. (seeing just 48, his lowest since 2014), and had just 39 catches for 367 yards, both well below his usual numbers. Even without Kevin Stefanski, the Vikings are surely going to be a run-first offense once again, which will leave Rudolph searching for targets for the second straight season, well outside of TE1 consideration.